Foodservice. It's as simple as that. Foodservice can have one of the biggest impacts on a hospital's reimbursement rates, and healthcare organizations should realize its importance if they want to help pad the bottom line.
Let's take a quick look at why foodservice is so important to a healthcare facilities bottom line.
Whether you're a community hospital in Tampa or a senior care community in Boca Raton, many healthcare organizations receive a significant amount of funding through reimbursements. Those rates are determined by patient satisfaction ratings, and of all the measures included in those ratings, foodservice has a huge ability to impact them.
The Impact of Measuring Patient Satisfaction and What Determines the Ratings
The patient experience is becoming more and more important, and providers are taking notice. Take Medicare, for example. Because of stricter measures to improve care quality, some facilities are losing money on reimbursements while others are earning more. These discrepancies are largely based on patient satisfaction surveys.
So what causes a patient to rate care as being better or worse? Of course, there are the elements of care. How are doctors and nurses at the bedside? How are families included as part of the care process? How is the facility itself? These are all important, but as detailed in a National Institutes of Health report, so is foodservice.
While foodservice consistently ranks as one of the most impactful aspects of the patient experience, it is also typically scored as one of the low points. For hospitals and senior care communities, this translates into opportunity.
When you consider patient reviews and reimbursements alongside the results of the most recent Foodservice Director Healthcare Census, which details how foodservice programs are also expanding to increase revenues, it's clear that foodservice will be even more critical for hospitals in the future.
Take advantage of our foodservice expertise to help increase satisfaction scores and reimbursement rates. Get a free healthcare foodservice action plan assessment today.
